Chapter VI · 1529 – 1600s

Wars of Adal & the Great Migrations

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Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim of the Adal Sultanate overran much of the highlands after 1529. Portuguese musketeers helped Emperor Gelawdewos turn the tide at Wayna Daga in 1543.

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Harar, walled by Emir Nur ibn Mujahid in the 16th century, became a great centre of Islamic learning — 'the city of saints'.

In the same century Oromo groups, organised by the Gadaa system, moved north and settled large parts of the country.

Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, called Gragn ('the left-handed'), defeated Emperor Lebna Dengel at Shimbra Kure in 1529 and campaigned across the empire for over a decade.

In 1541 a Portuguese force under Cristóvão da Gama landed to help the Christian kingdom. Da Gama was captured and killed in 1542, but in 1543 Gelawdewos and the surviving Portuguese defeated and killed Ahmad at Wayna Daga.

Both sides were exhausted by the wars. Oromo groups expanded into the highlands, bringing the Gadaa system — a democratic form of government by age-grades, recognised by UNESCO in 2016.